Caity, 23. I like coffee and attractive men. Also television. I have yet to grip the phenomenon known as adulthood, and live a James Potter appreciation life.
This letter is actually quite hard to write. I’m pretty sure I’ve hit the backspace button numerous times already, and I’m absolutely positive it will happen more and more as I continue on. There are so many things I want to convey, and it’s not easy to do in a simple letter, like this one. This is supposed to be simple, after all, because it is just a letter. It’s not a literary analysis or an earth shattering review, so as I sit here struggling to find the right words, I’m not sure why it’s happening. The prompt, “Write a letter stating how Harry Potter impacted (or still impacts) your life” seems easily next to an analysis or review, but evidently, it’s harder than I ever thought it would be.
I was seven years old when I had first heard of Harry Potter. This was right around the time when the books first started gaining popularity in the states, and my grandmother had asked me if I had read them (even back then, I was a total bookworm). I had responded no, I hadn’t, and I’ll admit when she then bought the first three for me for Christmas, I didn’t even give them a second glance. I didn’t bother reading the synopsis, already turned off by the boy with glasses on the cover. Who wanted to read about a boy, anyway? I was seven years old, and although my best friend was a boy at the time, I had no interest in reading about – God forbid – boys. So they sat for years on top of my father’s shelf at home, collecting dust, not being touched at all.
About a year after this time, my parents had a nasty divorce, and we moved out of our house, things getting packed away and lost quickly. I still remember my father calling me at my mother’s, asking me one final time whether I wanted to read the novels at all (to which I responded “no”) since he had come across them during the move. My father then gave them away to a family friend. I didn’t think much of this decision, because after all, I just wasn’t interested.
Time came and went, and before I knew it, trailers for the first film were circulating. I remember thinking, “Oh, God, here’s the boy with glasses again” after watching the preview, still closed-minded and now not even the slightest bit interested. I didn’t like when books became movies; my nine year old mind always thought casting directors got the characters wrong, and cut out important parts that were essential to the books. In other words, movies ruined books all the time, and I didn’t think I was going to be impressed by a film about a series of books I never took the time to glance at.
And for the most part, I was right. I saw the first film (my best friend at the time dragged me to the theater) and it didn’t do much for me. I wasn’t wowed, or impressed, or just… anything. It could’ve been my lack of attention, perhaps, and the fact that I walked into the theater completely closed-minded, totally pessimistic. If I could go back in time and change it, I would, because it wasn’t until a year later when the second film, Chamber of Secrets, hit theaters.
Nearing age twelve, I was in fifth grade when the second movie was about to be released. It had been a school trip, and I remember being excited that I got to miss a whole day of school just to watch a movie – a Harry Potter movie, no less – with snacks and soda and sweets. I think that it was because I was in a good mood, surrounded with a bunch of my friends and skieving off a day of school that led me to be more open-minded and unbiased to the idea of Harry Potter. I was nearing my teenage years, after all, and boys had suddenly become interesting.
After watching the movie that day, I knew I was hooked. I still remember walking out of the theater, having so many questions and desperately trying to remember the details from the first film. Why did that “Snake” guy hate Harry so much – was that even his name? What did the word “muggle” mean again? How did Harry get the scar? The questions were nonstop, buzzing around my head like bees for the rest of the day until I got home. The class’s next trip to the library I took out the first novel of the series, no questions asked.
I whizzed through the first four books incredibly fast, finishing them all by New Year’s of that year (CoS came out in November). I remember being incredibly bummed I had to wait almost seven entire months for the next book in the series to be published. Little did I know it would be absolute torture waiting for the final installment four years later.
As stupid as it may sound, I’m incredibly thankful that my school let us have the school trip. If it didn’t, I’m not sure I would have ever given that boy in glasses a second glance. My childhood had not been an easy one, and for years I struggled to find someone (or a character) to truly connect with. It wasn’t until I read about Harry that I really felt an understanding. For all the times I had been lost and confused and consumed in my own cupboard under the stairs, Harry was there. He was always there, as well as his whole world and friends and values and morals were. Despite how many things changed in my short little life, or how many people left it, Harry was the one thing that was constant. Always steadily constant.
And I don’t think there’s any way to properly give my gratitude.
Harry has shown me true courage isn’t standing up to your fears, but instead fighting for what’s right, despite your being afraid. He’s also shown me that the right decision almost always isn’t the easy one. It is your choices (not your abilities) that define your character. Love is the most precious thing in this world, and it alone has the power to overcome just about anything. Do not dwell on dreams too much, because you will forget to live; truly and wholly live. It takes a lot of courage to stand up to enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends. Time is precious.
These are all lessons I’ve read plenty times over as I reread the series, over and over and over. These books will be the most worn-out of my collection, and the three unlikely heroes will always remain in my heart.
As Professor Dumbledore has said, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light.” I can honestly say that Harry Potter has been the light in me for so many years, and will continue to be until I’ve stopped living.
So thank you, Mr. Potter, for always being the light in my life, when it seemed like the sun would never shine again.
